Mayweather-Berto Will Be An Unfitting End to A Stellar Career

With a record of 48-0, Floyd Mayweather will go down in history as one of the greatest fighters of all time. That is unless you ask him. He will tell that he is indisputably the greatest fighter of all time. After defending his title successfully against Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd, many in the boxing world wondered who he would fight next. The answer came in August when it was announced that he will fight former welterweight champion Andre Berto on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Boxing experts and fans alike have been underwhelmed by the choice of Berto as Mayweather’s final opponent- wishing instead that he would have chosen Amir Khan. Berto enters the fight with a record of 30-2 with 23 knockouts but is just 3-3 over his past 6 fights.
Almost as soon as it was announced, boxing fans began to express their disappointment in this fight. Mayweather has defended the choice of Berto by saying that he is a scrapper and that this makes for a great fight. But few in the fight game are buying it and most think that he simply choose a weak opponent to end his career. Regardless, boxing fans have been showing their disatisfaction by not buying tickets for the fight, reportedly there are still 2100 seats that have not been sold for the fight.

Mayweather vs. Berto: Main Event Press Conference

– September 9, 2015

With 23 knockouts, Berto clearly has the edge in power and this will be something to watch during the early rounds of the fight. Given his age and struggle with injuries over the past couple of years, Berto is still surprisingly fast and athletic. If he were fighting a different opponent this would be an advantage, but unfortunately he is fighting Floyd Mayweather. Berto’s greatest strength might be his sheer will to win. Although rarely talked about, he is one of the most durable fighters in the game today. He has battled a number of injuries during his career and shown he can take a great deal of punishment. Mayweather, obviously, does not want to make this fight a slug-fest. He would prefer to stick and move rather than slug it out in the middle of the ring.
Few boxers are as versatile as Floyd Mayweather. He is experienced, polished, and an master of boxing skill. What he lacks in pure punching power, largely due to early hand injuries, he makes up with technique and hard work. Few boxers in history have taken care of their bodies as well as Floyd Mayweather. At 38 years old, he still appears to be in better shapes than many boxers who are ten years his younger. Arguably the best defensive the fight games has ever seen, Mayweather mixes the ability to avoid punches with an amazing array of counter punching techniques. When it comes to technique and pure skill, Mayweather is in a class by himself.

ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Berto | Episode 1

The keys to this fight for each man will be simple. Berto needs to come out and try to take Mayweather out early but in order to do this he will have to find a way to cut off the ring and force Mayweather to stand in front of him. If he can somehow turn this into a fight rather than a boxing match, he will have a punchers chance of winning. But he can be sure that Floyd Mayweather is not going to make this easy. Berto is a bit one dimensional when it comes to his punching and must find away to land his right hand if he is going to have a chance at knocking Mayweather out. The problem is that Mayweather knows this and will not make it easy for him to set up.

ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Berto | Episode 2

Unless he gets caught by an early punch, Floyd Mayweather will win this fight easily. During the Pacquaio fight, Floyd proved his ability to avoid taking punches and to score effectively with his counter-punch and there is no reason to expect that he will change his style for this fight. He says that this will be his last fight, but one can’t help to think that he will be tempted to come back and fight one last time to try to make it 50-0. If that happens, hopefully, he will decide to give Amir Khan his rightful shot.